END OF YEAR
The end of August sees the end of our Financial Year. This year, all previous records would have been broken, with record turnover, record job figures and of course a record surplus - and all done without an increase in members subscriptions. I believe that Dial a Cab will be the first radio circuit in the UK to break through the £1,000,000 surplus, the actual figures being made available as soon as the audit has been completed. Before the little band of ‘knockers’ tell us that it is busy everywhere and anyone could produce the above, there are one or two things that I would like you to think about.
   If you look at our two main competitors and their figures; at the end of their last financial year, one had a surplus of less than one third of ours while the other was showing a loss of nearly half a million pounds. We have the lowest subscriptions of the three majors, an amount that has not been increased for nearly two and a half years and we are the only radio circuit that offer free subscriptions to long serving members. Our surplus over the last two years will equal the surplus that the society has made over the previous forty three years added together! Anyone can do it? Maybe! But we have proven we can do it, other people - whoever they may be - have still to prove it.

NEW TERMINALS
Some of you would have seen a few of our cabs working around town with a new prototype terminal. The terminals have been fitted in the main to double teams with the instruction to work them as hard as they can. When the terminals were fitted originally, we

had as you might expect one or two problems, but Tom Carter and a small band of engineers have done a fine job in sorting the problems out. It is quite unique that a new terminal is completely compatible with the former terminal and having this feature will give us more options in the future regarding the number of terminals that we order initially. It is extremely important that this company does not over-stretch itself financially, after all, who knows what the future might hold. Our trade will see tremendous changes in the next five years with some of our competitors looking for new acquisitions and the impending legislation regarding the private hire industry will have to be followed very closely to ensure it does not have a detrimental effect on our industry. We need to be alert in a company that only offers the public one product, after all we do have all our eggs in one basket.

NEW CHANNELS
I am very pleased to inform you that we have been allocated two new channels by the DTI.

Having extra channels will have the effect of allowing us to increase the fleet should we so desire. It will also improve reception and the system will work a little faster. The two base stations for the new channels will be situated in the south east at Shooters Hill and in the South West at the Tolworth Tower. We have been trying for the last eighteen months to acquire the new channels and for us to be given these two VHF high band frequencies is quite a coup for Dial a Cab as it is extremely difficult to acquire VHF channels.

CREDIT UNION
Those of you that belong to the Credit Union might have noticed that they have moved their office from Brunswick House to Corsham Street. I would like to make it quite clear to the whole membership that the Credit Union has its own structure, holds its own elections to elect officers and is completely independent of the main Board of Dial-a-Cab. The main Board of DAC has no influence over the Board of the Credit Union, they make their own decisions. The main Board were not consulted when the new secretary of the Credit Union moved the registered office to Corsham street, and rightly so, as Dial a Cab has no responsibility to the Credit Union as it is a complete stand alone unit. In the future should you have any queries or comments concerning the Credit Union, would you please address the Board of the Credit Union and not the Board of DAC.

Brian Rice